Booking Slot Length

[200hr Wonder]

With regards to the Useless post about a student having issues with the amount of stick time in a 1hr flight what do you all think is an appropriate amount of time for a flight time/total booking length.

Personally I think a 3 hour slot would be best but 2.5 is acceptable as follows:

30min PGI
15min pre-flight
10min sign out/potty break
90min Flight
15min De-Brief
====================
160min or 2hour 40min

This leaves 20min for the instructor to get organized for his or her next student. You know if you are newer class IV or have not given a certain exercise in a while review it your self...

Now this could be reduced to 2hr 30min by taking out the 10min Sign out/Potty Break and is do-able. Any less than that and you start cutting into PGI or Flight time neither of which is fair to the student or instructor trying to do a good job. Now some will say that the 15min De-Breif is over doing or the 30min PGI is way too long for a well prepared student. And sometimes this is the case, however then you flex your times and the student gets less time in the class room and more time in the air.

What say all of you in the instructing business?

[iflyforpie]

I don't instruct anymore, but I never found a two-hour slot a problem for a standard lesson. For first lessons and cross-countries of course you need to book multiple slots, but that is usually easily taken care of.

The booking sheet we always used went in one-hour increments. We weren't super busy so it worked quite well to add an extra hour if needed. Also was the advantage little waiting on the ground for traffic, and no transit to a distant practice area; so normal lessons would usually be a hair over an hour.

One thing to remember also is that you don't need the plane to do a PGI. It can be coming back down while you do the PGI and the returning student can be in debrief while your student pre-flights the aircraft.

[Big Pistons Forever]

I think you have to define what kind of training you are doing. A 90 min flight is way too long for a PPL and would just about kill you on a Aerobatic instruction flight, but is about right for a IFR lesson.
On average 2 hr slots seem to work OK with the "right" amount of PGI, debrief highly dependant on the type of lesson and the student.

[trevor3999]

oh cool, I inspired a topic!
I actually think that it is variable, depending on the conditions. For example, im at the stage were I learnt how to do weight and balance, airport procedures, and pretty much all the pre flight preperations. Im supposed to come about 30 min early so I can do all this and then find my instructor, but since im completely new to it all, it takes a long time, and she needs to explain it, which in turn decreases flight time. Im positive that well get in the air much quicker next time, because ive learnt how to do it all. It also depends on the airport, ZBB is absolutely insane to fly in and out of on a busy day, so alot of the flight time is devoted to orbiting, and being sent from one point to another just to get in the circuit. So 2 hours with the instructor and 30 minutes by myself is enough time I think. Ive all decided that im just being paranoid, and she is actually a good instructor I was quick to judge.

[FlaplessDork]

Depends on the stage, first few lessons I would say 3 hours, with a 1 hour PGI. Lots to cover on the first few.